174 NY ROC A AMERICANA 



which adheres to the rushes in the immediate neighborhood. Rockwell (1911) 

 describes two unusual nests, very close together in burrows in the top of a large musk- 

 rat house. The rat-house was at the edge of a small lake in a sparse growth of cat- 

 tails. A careful survey of all the rat-houses failed to discover any Red-head nests 

 similarly situated. Although most of the nests are well concealed Rockwell found 

 one in an open growth of cat-tails over eighteen inches of water where there was no 

 apparent attempt at concealment. Some of the nests are much larger and more 

 loosely constructed than others, and, as with Pochard, there are cases where very 

 little down is added. The down is light-colored, a delicate white, faintly tinged with 

 gray (W. L. Dawson and Bowles, 1909). 



Quite the most interesting phenomenon connected with the home life of this duck 

 is the irregularity in the size of the clutch, and the frequency with which it lays its 

 eggs in the nests of other ducks, particularly those of the Canvas-back and the 

 Ruddy. But it is even more erratic than this, and helps to swell the clutches of Pin- 

 tails, Mallards, Shovellers and Scaup. Indeed, one of my correspondents, Mr. A. 

 Wolfe, of Edmonton, Alberta, writes me that in his opinion some Red-heads do not 

 build any nest at all. He has collected many eggs for purposes of rearing ducks in 

 confinement and usually he found the Canvas-back incubating in cases where Red- 

 head and Canvas-back eggs were present in the same nest. In his region he tells me 

 that about half the ducks' nests contain mixed clutches, usually those of Canvas- 

 back, Red-head, Lesser Scaup and Ruddy. A remarkable nest, on which a Mallard 

 was brooding, contained sixteen eggs: five of the Red-head in different stages of incu- 

 bation, two fresh Canvas-back eggs, five highly incubated Mallard eggs, and four 

 Shoveller eggs in different stages! 



Many observers have had similar experiences. Bent (1907) found a few Red-head 

 eggs in almost all Canvas-back nests in Saskatchewan. He also describes the curious 

 "dumping" nests, in which many eggs are deposited and perhaps never incubated at 

 all. In North Dakota, Job (1899) found Red-heads laying in the nests of Canvas- 

 backs and Ruddies, while Shields (1885) found a nest near Los Angeles with fourteen 

 Redhead, three Ruddy and five Coot's eggs, a Red-head female being on the nest. 

 The latter writer (Shields, 1899) also describes Red-head nests containing one or more 

 eggs of the Fulvous Tree Duck. In Colorado clutches composed of Red-head and 

 Ruddy Duck eggs have also been found (Rockwell, 1911). 



This duck lays a large clutch, but so irregular are the laying habits that the aver- 

 age is very difficult to determine. Ordinarily a clutch numbers from ten to sixteen, 

 averaging about twelve, but nests with fifteen, seventeen, eighteen and twenty-two 

 eggs have been recorded. In the case of the last, Bent (1901-02) believes that it was 

 the work of one female. 



The color of the eggs varies from greenish drab to light buff, paler and more 

 highly glazed than the Pochard's according to Mr. Wormald. They are elliptical in 



